NEW YORK (Bloomberg) — The global recession is taking its toll on even the priciest shopping streets, where rents have plunged the most in at least 24 years, according to Cushman & Wakefield Inc., the largest closely held real estate broker.

Manhattan's Fifth Avenue ranked as the world's most expensive retail address for the eighth straight year, even as annual rents dropped 8.1 percent in the 12 months through June, to $1,700 a square foot, the New York-based company said today in a report. Rents in Hong Kong's Causeway Bay declined 15 percent to $1,525. On the Avenue des Champs-Elysees in Paris, they were little changed at $1,009.

"The last 12 months have been one of the most difficult periods ever for the retail sector," John Strachan, global head of retail at Cushman & Wakefield, said in an e-mailed statement. "The impact has been much more significant as the full impact of the downturn has been realised."

Shop rents are falling worldwide as household and consumer spending contract and unemployment rates rise, prompting retailers to curb expansion plans.

The average rent in the 274 shopping streets monitored across 60 countries by Cushman & Wakefield fell 23 percent to $213 a square foot from $276 a square foot a year earlier. Rents declined in 147 locations, the most since Cushman & Wakefield first published its survey in 1986. They were little changed on 76 streets and rose on 51.

The biggest regional decrease was in the Asia-Pacific, with rents down 15.1 percent. In central and eastern Europe, they slid 14.7 percent. They dropped 12 percent in the US and Canada and 5.8 percent in Europe as a whole.

"A significant resumption of rental growth in the short term is unlikely, at least until the wider global economy and labor market show firmer signs of recovery," Anthea To, a Cushman & Wakefield retail analyst, said in the statement.

Rents in less profitable areas may continue to fall as retailers focus on the places that are most in demand, she said.

Milan's Via Montenapoleone, where annual rents rose 1.5 percent, ranked as the fourth-priciest street in the survey, at $887 a square foot. It was followed by Tokyo at $776 and London's New Bond Street at $768. The most expensive streets in Zurich, Dublin, Munich and Sydney rounded out the global top 10.

Munich's Kaufingerstrasse jumped to ninth place from 12th after annual rents rose 7.1 percent to $470 a square foot, the biggest increase of any street in the top ten cities.

Rents on Dublin's Grafton Street tumbled 23 percent, the most of any of the ten costliest addresses.